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Gingo Entertainment
Gingo Entertainment Media, LLC (marketed and stylized as GiNGO) is an American multimedia and entertainment company which produces and develops feature films, television programming and video games. The company was founded in 2005 following Gingo's split from Universal Studios and is best known for its Gingo Animation, Glass Ball Productions, Gingo Interactive, Northwood Entertainment, and Creative Step Studio units. A second acquisition of Gingo by Universal via NBCUniversal was announced on August 25, 2019; the acquisition was officially finished on October 1, 2019. Background Aleka Productions was created in 1982 as the feature animation division of Gingo Animation, and was spun off into Universal Studios' animation unit in 1996. However, in 1998, Universal acquired Gingo, creating the combined company Universal/Gingo Animation, the North Hollywood branch of its new business division. During the Universal/Gingo merger, former Gingo founder Michael Wildshill and his Universal Animation team were heavily involved in the production of many Gingo-produced animated series and films (including The Gabriel Garza Movie in 2002 and Zina and the Vivid Crew in 2004) as well as the development of some of Gingo's in-house video games via Gingo Interactive, such as Jenny Zoom for the Sony PlayStation released in 1999. History In January 2005, Gingo announced its split from Universal due to new opportunities as well as more offerings if the company goes independent. By February 21, 2005, Gingo was split from Universal, and effectively reversed the Universal/Gingo merger of 1998. Universal currently retains the rights for the pre-2005 Gingo library as well as retaining the right of first refusal to distribute sequels to pre-2005 films; as of 2018, most of the pre-2005 library is now owned by Universal Animation Studios under Michael Wildshill's watch. Geo G. took full control of the studio following the split, while Wildshill had declined to oversee Gingo and remained on board as a consultant. In addition, Gingo Animation was transferred into a new entertainment company called Gingo Entertainment Media, LLC, headed by its president Clive Nakayashiki. Its divisions Glass Ball Productions and Gingo Interactive, with the latter being formerly under the Universal Interactive umbrella, were integrated under Gingo Entertainment. In March 2005, Gingo Entertainment signed and in 2008 renewed a five-year distribution deal with 20th Century Fox, in which it will market, co-finance, and distribute films from the company's Gingo Animation and Glass Ball Productions labels. Metro Cone, which was originally set to be distributed by Universal before the split, was the first film released under the new agreement. In January 2006, Gingo and Blur Studio extended the deal for an additional five films. With Blur doing computer animation, they covered all two major styles, besides traditional animation. This partnership had Gingo participating in the production of computer-animated films in Venice, and also had Blur participating in some of the hand-drawn films made in North Hollywood. In April 2006, Gingo launched their official YouTube channel. Gingo's partnership with Blur Studio ended after the release of Workers, having Blur animated three out of five computer animated films. The announcement was made before the film's release, on August 26, 2013, citing "creative differences". Gingo then replaced Blur with Creative Step Studio, the studio's in-house computer animation department that would produce CGI-animated films on their own starting with Metro Cone Forever in 2015. In October 2014, just a month before the release of Disney's Big Hero 6, Gingo entered a licensing agreement with Disney to use the Hiro Hamada character and trademark for its productions (such as films, television series, shorts, specials, video games, etc.), which sparked media speculation that Hiro will guest star in Gingo's animated comedy sketch series ''GGTV''. Gingo's CEO and founder Geo G. stated that the reasoning was due to wanting to have Hiro in Gingo media because of the increasing popularity of "Liro", an internet crossover fan-fiction relationship between Hiro and Leno Garza, a character from Gingo's ''Gabriel Garza'' franchise, as they both share the similar appearance and characteristics. Gingo stated in July 2017 that they intend to keep the Hiro Hamada character license from Disney until the contract expires in 2027. In December 2015, the rights to the Metro Cone ''franchise as well as ''10 Feet ''and ''Workers which were owned by 20th Century Fox reverted back to Gingo due to Fox's contract of retaining rights to Fox/Gingo films expiring. Re-acquisition by Universal :Further information: Proposed 2019 acquisition of Gingo by NBCUniversal On November 2, 2016, after their successful attempt at buying DreamWorks Animation, Comcast (the owner of Universal Pictures' parent company NBCUniversal) sent a letter to Gingo Animation and Universal Animation Studios (which currently handles the pre-2005 Gingo library), encouraging the two studios to merge back into one animation studio. NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures already owns three animation studios: Universal Animation, Illumination Entertainment and DreamWorks Animation. Universal Animation Studios' CEO Michael Wildshill would once again oversee both Gingo and Universal Animation following the completion of the merger. If approved by federal regulators, the merger would reunite Gingo's properties under the same umbrella as Universal Animation, with the intention of treating the company similarly to Marvel Studios as well as strengthening the relationship between Universal and Gingo. The deal has faced criticism for the possibility that Universal could operate too many animation studios to mimic that of The Walt Disney Company (which owns Walt Disney Animation Studios and Pixar) and focus too much on animated films. On November 17, 2016, the Department of Justice filing an antitrust lawsuit over the acquisition explaining, "it can cause a huge negative impact on the animation audience and cause less competition due to how big the deal is." On January 21, 2017, the deal was called off. On August 23, 2018, it was reported by the Los Angeles Times that NBCUniversal had re-entered talks to acquire Gingo and merge the studio into Universal Animation. Both Gingo and NBCUniversal stated that the merger would not affect any films in production prior to the deal (such as Addie and The Boy and the Ape for Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation), nor any Glass Ball Productions properties (with most of them being owned by the Walt Disney Studios via 20th Century Fox) as well as any preexisting deals with other film studios for the time being, although NBCUniversal said they would distribute future Gingo projects under Universal once the deals expired. The proposed deal would have Universal bring Gingo back under the Universal umbrella and gain full control to the film rights of the post-2004 Gingo library (excluding the Universal-distributed films) with films distributed by studios other than Universal having their distribution rights expire in 2020. On September 28, 2018, District Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in favor of NBCUniversal, thus allowing the acquisition to go ahead with no conditions or remedies. Leon argued that the Department of Justice provided insufficient evidence that the proposed transaction would result in lessened competition. He also warned the government that attempting to obtain an appeal or stay on the ruling would be manifest unjust, as it would cause "certain irreparable harm to the defendants." On July 2, 2019, the Los Angeles Times reported that Gingo Entertainment and Universal Animation would explore merger discussions in mid-August 2019. Reports said that Universal and Gingo reportedly set September 12 as an informal deadline for reaching an agreement to recombine the two media companies. NBCUniversal announced to acquire Gingo as part of the re-merger deal for up to $64.9 billion. On August 19, 2019, it was reported that NBCUniversal agreed to merge Gingo back into Universal, pending approval from the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division. However, on August 21, 2019, NBCUniversal delayed its acquisition of Gingo as the two companies report the quarterly earnings, though the talks about the re-merger continued. On August 25, NBCUniversal and Gingo officially announced their merger. Clive Nakayashiki and Athena Christaniakis will retain as co-presidents of Gingo Animation and Glass Ball Productions, while Michael Wildshill will return as chairman and CEO of both Gingo and Universal Animation, where he will oversee the Gingo-branded properties. NBCUniversal also announced that both the Gingo and Glass Ball labels (alongside Creative Step Studio) would be integrated as new units within the Universal Animation Studios while NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment Group will take full ownership of the Gingo Channel, in which Universal owned 50% with Gingo. On October 1, the acquisition was officially finished thus putting the whole company under NBCUniversal with non-Universal owned properties by Gingo and it’s other companies unaffected. Units The company's operating units, as of 2018, include: Current *Gingo Animation **Gingo Online ***Gingo Gaming *Glass Ball Productions *Northwood Entertainment *Creative Step Studio *BRB Internacional **Screen 21 **AnimaKids *Gingo Interactive Group **Gingo Interactive ***Gingo Interactive Black ***Gingo Interactive Tokyo ***Gingo Interactive Seaside **Glass Ball Interactive *Gingo Channel (50%, with NBCUniversal's Universal Pictures division) **Gingo Junior **NightHouse *GingoDirect *Gingo Comics *Gingo Media *Gingo Licensing Former *Aleka Productions (merged into Universal Studios as Universal Feature Animation (now Universal Animation Studios) *Gingo Lineup (joint venture with Universal Television) **USA Kids **UPN Afternoon Toonz *Gingosoft *Northwood Interactive *Gingo Wireless *Gingo Home Entertainment Production library Franchises See also *List of Gingo Animation productions *List of unproduced Gingo projects *List of Gingo programs *List of Gingo Animation video games *Universal Animation Studios Category:Companies Category:Gingo Entertainment Category:Gingo Animation